Internet Explorer Dips Below 50% of All Web Usage

With all the talk of smartphone and tablet wars, OS wars, PC/laptop wars, it’s easy to forget about one of the key technological battles: the Web browser wars. Latest casualty? Internet Explorer. Last month, its popularity hit its lowest level in more than 10 years, falling below 50 percent of all web usage.

It’s the “all” part that’s key here. Since more mobile devices are accounting for an increasing proportion of web traffic, it stands to reason that Internet Explorer — which is like an application non grata there — would take a hit. And so it has: Across all traffic, IE weighs in at 49.58 percent of users. Separate out the desktop browsers, though, and the Microsoft default keeps its majority, at 52.63 percent. It’s worth noting though that this is still a drop-off of 1.76 percentage points lower than the previous month. (That’s a stark contrast to its 2004 peak, when it hit roughly 95 percent.)

On a separate note, Chrome continues to be on the rise. Could be due to it benefiting from IE’s fall from grace, as well as new versions constantly releasing, to keep the user base interested and on its toes. Maybe that’s why the majority of the staff at Ars Technica has picked it over Firefox, calling it “the technologist’s browser of choice.”

Do you agree? Which browsers do you use/like the most? Or do you drool over some sort of FrankenBrowser that doesn’t exist yet that could meld the best stuff from what’s currently available?

For more, check out the graphs below, including stats and charts on mobile browsing.